Inside info about the new iMac

[soulcrusher]

I am not supposed to tell you anything about the new iMac but I can't hold it.

I'll say just one thing: Removable HardDrive

[Falcon]

Be still my beating heart :rolleyes:

[eliahu]

What's so new about this? The iMacs already have removeable hard drives. They also have removable ram.

[crazylb1]

well the ipod is essentially a removable hard drive... ;)

[soulcrusher]

Easy to remove, accessible, small, swapable portable hard drive.

You'll know what I am talking about when you see it. It makes perfect sense.

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: soulcrusher ]</p>

[KidRed]

Damn, kinda like what Dorsal said? The iPod or lookalike white small removable drive for the iMac?

Ok, but why?

Oh shit!! Ok, follow me. You have this removable harddrive and you just created an iMovie clip so you save it on this removable drive. Then you swap it out and put it into the iDock (another thread going on) and you can play the movie on the TV without having to burn a dvd, that is if you have a dvd palyer.

This is getting wierd, iDock, iPod and now the new iMac with removable drive that is iPod like according to Dorsal....what a show this gonna be.

[Mike Eggleston]

[quote]Originally posted by soulcrusher:
<strong>Easy to remove, accessible, small, swapable portable hard drive.

You'll know what I am talking about when you see it. It makes perfect sense.

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: soulcrusher ]</strong><hr></blockquote>

Get real. I would see one in a Pro system before they made it into the consumer level machines.

[Wrong Robot]

Woah, Thats a good idea, well more or less.
Apple keeps stressing Digital hub digital hub, perhaps the next iMac is going to actually follow up on that to the fullest extent, imagine a cheap iMac loaded with ports and inputs and outputs and connections; Could function as a computer for internet-games; could function as raw video and/or audio file dump; could function as a sort of starting point for a future line of apple peripherals(iCam, iPod, iSomething)
hrm, Sounds like a risky strategy that would only successfully wok if done perfectly, so This COULD or could not be a really big thing for apple, as for LCD, though it would be super sweet, I don't know it, It would definatly up the price.

[Junkyard Dawg]

Gigawire, hot swappable hard drive?

But why? Say a person removes their HD..then what do they do with it?

But it would be cool to have a specialized dock for the iPod, so one can shuttle data between Macs using the iPod. Problem is, what if you don't have an iPod? Not everyone wants to spend $400 for removable media, when a CDRW disc holds 800MB and costs less than $1.

[KidRed]

Here's Dorsal post (part of it)

[quote] Future desktop systems (iMac type machines and modular machines) will have bundled gadgets suited for specific uses (for example: an iPod bundled with an iMac where the iPod would slide in a slot in the imac made for it) depending on the desktop system it comes with. Some of the examples cited indicated to me atleast, that Apple want's to expand it's core business from just consumer and professional graphics artists to business and media creation. <hr></blockquote>


Kinda sounds like a swappable drive to me :)

[amidala]

Simple.

If it was slightly larger than the iPod, it could easily hold 30GB of data.

I could use that in the school I teach at. Each student gets a portable HD to take with them, so they can work on any computer they like (I teach video production). That way we wouldn't have problems with kdis erasing each others work or using too much disk space.

That's actually a great, great idea.

Especially if it also fit into a video camera. Which would record directly to the HD (no tape to lose quality with). Perfect video. Perfect video. Perfect audio. Perfect.

Then you slip it into your iMac, and boom.

or, like the article I read on Yahoo News about Apple (it was an opinion about Gigawire), slip it into any one of Apples stands in the airport, and continue your work from home.

Simple.

Amazing.

Truely revelutionary.

That is so exciting!!!

Imagine this senerio:

You ahve a commercial for a cliant, and it's not finished quite yet, but you need to get on your plane. So you do. But you have a 3 hour layover in some wierd city. So you get off the plane, get a cup of coffe, and park yourself in front of an iMac terminal. No HD in the mac save for the system disk, so you pop in your disk. You work on it and when it's done, you take it with you.

Or in a coffee shop that sports iMacs.

Or at your school or university, where funding (for state run schools) isn't enough to allow for enough computers. So you do your work on the comptuer, but TAKE YOUR WORK WITH YOU.


I don't know who that guy is who started this post. I'd like to know more about how they would know this, but if he/she is right, then damn. Great idea.

It's very, very revolutionary.

Andrew


Why not use CD-Rs? Cause thye break easily, they're larger, take longer to write, (they don't use Gigawire, or Firewire) and they only hold 800MB. Not 30GB.

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: amidala ]</p>

[Tarbash]

MIke Eggleston writes"
"Get real. I would see one in a Pro system before they made it into the consumer level machines."

Hmm. Well how do we know it won't show up in the new PowerMacs as well??

Or it could be like USB was with the iMac in 1998; a technological first for Apple, premiering on its consumer desktop machine.
Also, if I remember correctly, the iBook was also the first machine to implement UMA and AGP graphics.

[stimuli]

Actually, digital video camcorders don't lose quality on the tape because they record 1s and 0s to the tape. Like a Unix backup tape drive.

But yea, a 30 GB hardrive in a camcorder would be sweet.

[amidala]

[quote]Originally posted by stimuli:
<strong>Actually, digital video camcorders don't lose quality on the tape because they record 1s and 0s to the tape. Like a Unix backup tape drive.

But yea, a 30 GB hardrive in a camcorder would be sweet.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Try recording 5 2 Hour plays on one tape (I do video recordings of school plays), and see if there aren't any artifacts. There will be. The tape degrades (sadly), and the MiniDV tapes are the worst.

Andrew

[CosmoNut]

[quote]Originally posted by amidala:
<strong>Each student gets a portable HD to take with them, so they can work on any computer they like (I teach video production). That way we wouldn't have problems with kdis erasing each others work or using too much disk space.</strong><hr></blockquote>

"Morgan, where's your hard drive?"

"Um, I accidentally dropped it in the toilet/stepped on it/erased it/pick a horrible thing."

Hard drives in the hands of grade schoolers? Bad idea.

[amidala]

I teach High School. Right now, they have iBooks.

Andrew

[torifile]

The idea of the iDock is intriguing to say the least, with one problem: the iPod's HDs only come in sizes UPTO 5 gigs. Too small for a real computer. Toshiba, the maker of the HD said that larger sizes will be available next year. So, we won't see an iDock that can take both the iPod and this fabled removable HD from the iMac for a while, if at all. The iDock makes much more sense for a removable HD. All in all, this is a pipe-dream cracked up by soulcrusher to generate some controversy. Not gonna happen.

[DoctorGonzo]

[quote]Or it could be like USB was with the iMac in 1998; a technological first for Apple, premiering on its consumer desktop machine. <hr></blockquote>

Learn to check you facts.

USB was on consumer desktop PCs long before it appeared on the Mac.

[amidala]

[quote]Originally posted by DoctorGonzo:
<strong>

Learn to check you facts.

USB was on consumer desktop PCs long before it appeared on the Mac.</strong><hr></blockquote>


He said it was the first time it appeared on an Apple machine.

Andrew

[Outsider]

Or it could be like USB was with the iMac in 1998; a technological first for Apple,

Yes it was a first for Apple.

premiering on its consumer desktop machine.

Yes, it did premier on their consumer machine...

What fact didn't he check? Seems all in order to me.

[gMax]

Removable HardDrive :

Could easily be done, just slap in an Iomega Peerless !

<img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />

[Tarbash]

Thanks guys. At least some people here actually take the time to read posts thoroughly.

[HoofHearted]

Taking the "docking an ipod with an imac" idea a logical step further, take a look at <a href="http://www.applele.com" target="_blank">http://www.applele.com</A> , the second page has a picture in the top right of a concept apple digi camcorder, very much in the ipod style. Click it for more views.

So the same theory follows, take the video on your apple iCam, plug-in to your imac "hard drive slot" to mount it on the desktop and run imovie. Simple.

Of course, this is pure concept, applele designs are for fun, they never purport to be showing future apple designs - although most of the concepts look easily more professional than some of the more common fakes out there. There's no reason (yet) to think that Apple will take on Sony/Matsushita head on in the digi camcorder market - although I'd be tempted by such a device if it was a fw drive and MP3 jukebox, like the ipod is.

But I digress.

As it is, I'm skeptical of the "docking hard drive", I might be missing something but the real world benefit of such a feature doesn't seem a huge leap from a much simpler idea: just add a usb and a firewire port to the front of the mac for your ipod/cam/portable drive.

[soulcrusher]

<a href="http://www.yourdailymac.com" target="_blank">www.yourdailymac.com</a> has been updated this morning. They have a pic of what they think is a prototype of the new iMac, whether if it is the final or not, you can clearly see the removable harddrive (it looks like a PDA) next to it and the slot in the front of the machine.

Doesn't this totally agree with what Dorsal and I said before?

[Escher]

[quote]Originally posted by soulcrusher:
<strong><a href="http://www.yourdailymac.com" target="_blank">www.yourdailymac.com</a> has been updated this morning.</strong><hr></blockquote>

That pic is of a Compaq prototype. YourDailyMac stole the story (verbatim) from <a href="http://www.go2mac.com" target="_blank">Go2Mac</a>. Stealing stories (which is what copying without crediting is) is very crappy reporting.

Escher

[benmac]

[quote]Originally posted by soulcrusher:
<strong><a href="http://www.yourdailymac.com" target="_blank">www.yourdailymac.com</a> has been updated this morning. They have a pic of what they think is a prototype of the new iMac, whether if it is the final or not, you can clearly see the removable harddrive (it looks like a PDA) next to it and the slot in the front of the machine.

Doesn't this totally agree with what Dorsal and I said before?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Have a look at the following website: <a href="http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/presspaq/052101/visioneering.html" target="_blank">http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/presspaq/052101/visioneering.html</a>

[eliahu]

Well, you all have vivid imaginations--I'll give you that. But you really need to work on your critical analysis skills. You're all as gullible as the folks at MOSR.

Has anyone bothered to check on the validity of the source of this thread?

I did some checking and Soulcrusher is clearly a teenager without any actual inside information at all.

[Mike D]

[quote]Originally posted by benmac:
<strong>

Have a look at the following website: <a href="http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/presspaq/052101/visioneering.html" target="_blank">http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/presspaq/052101/visioneering.html</a> </strong><hr></blockquote>

This prototype has been kicking around on the net for over a year. I am not sure why it has had a resurgance in postings recently but this is not anything new.

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: Mike D ]</p>

[JasonPP]

take a lok at this...

<a href="http://samsungelectronics.com/semiconductors/TFT_LCD/Monitors/LTM150PL/ltm150pl.htm" target="_blank">http://samsungelectronics.com/semiconductors/TFT_LCD/Monitors/LTM150PL/ltm150pl.htm</a>

this would be a perfect screen for the LCD iMac...PERFECT!!

then there's this..

<a href="http://samsungelectronics.com/semiconductors/TFT_LCD/Monitors/LTM190U1/ltm190u1.htm" target="_blank">http://samsungelectronics.com/semiconductors/TFT_LCD/Monitors/LTM190U1/ltm190u1.htm</a>

wow!

and then this ACD killer!

<a href="http://samsungelectronics.com/semiconductors/TFT_LCD/Monitors/LTM240W1/ltm240w1.htm" target="_blank">http://samsungelectronics.com/semiconductors/TFT_LCD/Monitors/LTM240W1/ltm240w1.htm</a>

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: JasonPP ]</p>

[Moogs]

[quote]Originally posted by eliahu:
<strong>
Has anyone bothered to check on the validity of the source of this thread? I did some checking and Soulcrusher is clearly a teenager without any actual inside information at all.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Sources, schmources...we don't need no stinking sources! :D

While I tend to agree with your assessment, I don't doubt that Apple is going to make a move (at some point) towards universally swappable drives, video/sound recording devices, etc. What people here are describing...the ability to take your work with you without having to rely on non-standard devices like Peerless, or having to lug your machine around with you...that's a cool idea.

Just go to your local cafe or bookstore or wherever, pop in your drive, make your changes / send your emails (whatever), pop the drive out, and be on your merry way. Final edits and work to be done at home (less work at that).

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: Moogs ™ ]</p>

[JasonPP]

OK:

<a href="http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-8065180.html?tag=lthd" target="_blank">http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-8065180.html?tag=lthd</a>

another article about the upcoming iMac. Looks like Apple WILL release a new iMac and is aware of the need for a big change.

If they can repeat the homerun they did with the iBook, we're in for a treat!

[Escher]

Bloomberg News, quoting the same Morgan Stanley analyst as C|Net, is also getting into the LCD iMac fray:

<a href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_news.ht&s=APA0VdBPsQXBwbGUg" target="_blank">http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_news.ht&s=APA0VdBPsQXBwbGUg</a>

Escher

[Moogs]

You guys beat me to it. I was going to paste in the C|Net URL.

[quote]<strong>Apple Computer may finally be poised to unfurl a long-rumored flat-panel iMac, according to a report Tuesday from Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley analysts Gillian Munson and Stirling Levy said in the report that Apple has placed component orders for producing 100,000 15-inch flat-panel iMacs per month, starting in January.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Don't know about you guys but I tend to doubt the Morgan Stanley guys have much to invest in rumor-mongering. If they say the parts have been ordered, I believe it. Looks like the existing iMacs will be dirt cheap a month or so from now...good news considering I was going to get one for my Mom. Will definitely hold off now.

[Matsu]

1 Some problems with current digital cameras: the storage is damn expensive, and it writes slowly. The 5GB HDD of the iPod would be absolutely perfect enclosed in a nice rugged but not too big digital still camera. 3-6MP images? RAW TIFFS? NO PROBLEM, you've got FIVE GB built-in to the unit. Don't even bother putting a compact flash slot on the thing, just give it a fast firewire connection to dump the contents of your camera to a computer really quickly and your ready to keep shooting. You could literally take a few hundred high res-low compression pictures before you had to download anything at all. BRILLIANT!

2 Some problems with digital video. Amidala nailed it. The tapes are short and they do degrade with repeated re-recording. Pain in the ass. Now a 4.7GB DVD holds about 2 hrs of broadcast 500+ line material, but it must be carefully encoded at a Variable bit rate to get it all in. Perhaps a system like the new MicroMV could record at a slightly higher bit rate directly to a small HDD? Benefits would be that it's already in a high quality MPEG-2 format, so that it takes less hardware muscle to deal with when editing -- it's already encoded so burning should be faster too. We probably need a bit more storage though. Perhaps in a year and a half or so when 10-20 GB are available, then we'll be in business. ALSO BRILLIANT.

Yes, most definitely HDD's in still and video cameras ought to be the way it's done.

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: Matsu ]</p>

[TCO]

[quote]1 Some problems with current digital cameras: the storage is damn expensive, and it writes slowly. The 5GB HDD of the iPod would be absolutely perfect enclosed in a nice rugged but not too big digital still camera. 3-6MP images? RAW TIFFS? NO PROBLEM, you've got FIVE GB built-in to the unit. Don't even bother putting a compact flash slot on the thing, just give it a fast firewire connection to dump the contents of your camera to a computer really quickly and your ready to keep shooting. You could literally take a few hundred high res-low compression pictures before you had to download anything at all. BRILLIANT!<hr></blockquote>

Close, but not quite. Methinks the iPod will connect to the iCam via firewire. It lowers the price of the iCam BIG-TIME, and makes all kinds of sense. Smaller, cheaper, lighter camera. Either some built in memory (64 megs or so), or compact flash slots to tide you over between offloading. I mean come on, it's called the iPod.

[Matsu]

umm, maybe, but it doesn't seem to suit Apple's philosophy of closed, targeted-use devices. This whole docking thing seems rather specious to me, but not out of the question either, I just think Apple will go about it a little differently.

But I don't think we'll see cameras from Apple just yet, so lets look at the docking. If Apple makes a camera, it will be a sealed firewire only affair. The iPod won't slot into it -- if you want one you pay the full price for both items: it's the Apple way. However, using the firewire, it ought to be easy enough to make them smart dock in such a way that the camera automatically dumps new pictures to the iPod. A few seconds, and you go back to shooting, no problem, no removable media, no computer. Just you, your camera, and an iPod for back-up, or listening pleasure, as you desire.

Which brings us to the notion of docking in the computer itself. Is that neccessary, or cleaner than just plugging in to a bus powered port? If this is true at all (and it just might be), the insiders might have misconstrued the notion of 'dock' and/or 'port' that Apple intends. Amidala has a point about the usefulness of a robust removeable drive solution, but I think it'll plug in just like current firewire periphs do. I think it more likely that Apple will have made improvements to 1 the speed of the bus, 2 the facility for bus powered devices, and 3 drivers/protocol for just the scenario Amidala described earlier. Maybe not airport kiosks, but certainly classrooms, pre-press houses, and home to office or comp to remote comp functionality. All of it, just not with a dock, it's all going to be over a suitable enhanced firewire port.
________
EDIT: OOPS, re-reading my earlier post, I realize I made it sound like I wanted to enclose the whole pod with a camera. No. I think they'd just use the drive in a camera body. It'd be a whole seperate device (from the iPod) that just happens to use a 5GB HDD too. Sorry for the confusion.

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: Matsu ]</p>

[Junkyard Dawg]

Yeah, this would be a bitchin' idea.

The digital camera wouldn't even need the miniturized, removable flash RAM. Just give it some cheaper, non-removable flash RAM for internal storage. Load it up so it can take 30-25 pics at a time.

Then add a Firewire port to the camera, and dump the photos directly into the iPod. It's PERFECT. I'll be very surprised and dissapointed if Apple doesn't enable this sort of thing on the iPod. All they need to do is add a converter so USB cameras can use the iPod's firewire port (or just add a frickin' USB port!).

Even better, Apple could give the iPod a rudimentary OS that ran some compression software. So if one chooses, they could stuff the digital images "on the fly" as they are dumped into the iPod--allowing even more images to be stored on the iPod.

This iPod has so much potential....I just hope Apple develops it fully. It would be tragic if the iPod didn't sell and Apple had to cancel it before it even realized its full potential.

[eliahu]

I'm not supposed to tell you, but I can't resist. The name of the removable iMac hard drive will be the iDiot.

Shhhh. Don't tell anyone, please.

[KD5MDK]

You know, the Toshiba drives aren't the only little things out there. I'll bet Apple has all the economy of scale they need with the iPod orders right now, so that's not the goal. If they moved up to say small laptop drives, it would be maybe the size of my Handspring at most, but could fit a WHOLE bunch more (like the guy was saying about 30GB) and be a lot cheaper. For a portable storage device that could carry DV, MPEG-2, etc it could be VERY useful. Maybe.

[Matsu]

One size up, to a 2.5" drive, would definitely get up to the 20-30 GB range. I think the issue with the smaller drive is shock resistance (supposed to be very high on the toshiba) wieght and power consumption. However, slightly bigger drives would probably be OK for Video Cams (especially pro units).

Otherwise, I really think that gigawire will be just a substantially improved version of firewire.

[save ferris]

Just a quick note... remember Steve Jobs' first OTHER company? NeXT? When the cube premiered, one of the revolutionary features was that it had no hard drive: all information was kept on a rewritable CD... the idea was you took your whole "world" with you: system, applications, data... any NeXT box you stuck your disk in, it was your machine again. It was SLOW, and a hard drive was added soon after, but the basic idea has a certain charm to it, wouldn't you say?

save ferris

[eliahu]

About as much charm as losing my whole world.

[alcimedes]

hmm, anyone know if the iPod uses a native firewire harddrive?

if apple started moving this direction that would be really cool. also, why don't they make drivers so their iPod can run off PC's. that would open up a huge market to them that isn't available at the moment.

[Junkyard Dawg]

Before this became practical something faster than Firewire would be needed for connecting the HD.

However, it's already possible to carry around a system on the iPod. Just install OS 9 or X, and you've got a portable OS. At 5 MB it doesn't leave much room for apps or docs, but it's still pretty damn cool if you ask me.

Or you could forget the iPod and just buy a Firewire portable HD...but again speed is a problem. Perhaps Gigawire is the solution?

[baldyman]

Hmm, are you really talking abaout the iPod? In my opinion it has a 5gig HD. Okay thats not that much. But for a fast removable storage device it should by quite enough.
And Firewire too slow. As I know the limitations are because of the bridge that is used for non-native HDs. And isn´t there FW2 knocking at the door with 800mbit or even 1,6Gbit/s?
But despite of that, I don´t see this as built-in feature. It will only be an add-on. Maybe as iDock. A slot for a device like iPod would not look very nice. And i would not be flexible enough for future devices. I.e. an iCam in the case of the iPod would be awful to handle.

[gumby5647]

[quote]Originally posted by amidala:


Imagine this senerio:

You ahve a commercial for a cliant, and it's not finished quite yet, but you need to get on your plane. So you do. But you have a 3 hour layover in some wierd city. So you get off the plane, get a cup of coffe, and park yourself in front of an iMac terminal. No HD in the mac save for the system disk, so you pop in your disk. You work on it and when it's done, you take it with you.

Or in a coffee shop that sports iMacs.

Or at your school or university, where funding (for state run schools) isn't enough to allow for enough computers. So you do your work on the comptuer, but TAKE YOUR WORK WITH YOU.
<hr></blockquote>


Yeah, see, this concept already exsits....its called the PowerBook G4. Desktop power to go....

[Amorph]

Junkyard Dawg wrote:

[quote]Before this became practical something faster than Firewire would be needed for connecting the HD.<hr></blockquote>

How so?

FW is already fast enough to handle any IDE drive. The bottleneck in the iPod's disk performance is the HDD itself, not the interface.

[jobes]

Just thinking about these removable drives for iMacs and other stuff thats been coming up in other threads too.... I'm taking it with a pinch of salt as one must all rumors, but I would like to believe .... :D

I'm thinking that some naysayers are saying its unlikey a consumer model Mac would get something like this first, before pro machines. Past precedent isn't so clear on this though: USB was intro'd with the iMac, and then came with every model in the product matrix. The Yosemite G3 intro'd Firewire, but it took another two years before the iBook was rev'd to have a FW port. However when the iBook came out it had support for Airport, and this was then rolled out as products were rev'd or intro'd. I'm not sure this points to Apple aiming to release new technologies on the consumer or pro without aiming for eventual feature parity. And it seems hopeful we will be seeing all new desktop models for pros and consumers being intro'd at MWSF in January. If that happens and this removable, dockable drive is real, my guess is it'll be supported by both machines ....

Remember lots of those threads in the spring ... everlasting rumors of Firewire II / 1394b / now Gigawire? .... also the news of the Oxford 911 chipset for FW to increase bridge speeds drastically. Remember the third FW port inside early models of G4s? Perhaps Apple's had a 'digital hub' concept or at least elements of it running for longer than we have imagined, and its been external factors such as the long gestation period of viable FW chipsets, availability of LCD / small 2.5" HDs/ and peripheral makers to start doing the stuff Apple envisaged it all doing ...
Firewire is still the dominant interface for mainly computer peripherals and DV stuff, we have a whole heap of other connectors for many other domestic products, (SCART, S-Video, analogue or SPDIF for audio etc).

Is Firewire starting to gain that criticial momentum & acceptance now in the prosumer areas? I'm not too hot on all things A/V & home cinema related, but I think it'll only be a matter of time until we get a FW digital camera on the market. Flash media costs too much as cameras get ever better resolutions, USB is slower and slower. I'm sure you could run an iLink port onto the next generation of Sony digicams, watch Vaio and Mac users dribble, and most other manufacturers start to go down the same route. All that's needed is a big consumer/prosumer appliance manufacturer to take the lead. I don't think it'll Apple though: Sony? mebbe. Good candidate, and helps draw the Wintel world into the party. One other thing on this whole greater acceptance thing: is IEEE 1394 envisaged as part of the Nvidia NForce/HyperTransport gameplan? Will there be a further degree of convergence between Apple and x86 mobo designs so we see firewire becoming a standard on most new PCs?

One of the oft-requested things I have read in related stories over the last year or so is that IF Apple are developing (amongst other products) a rackmount server, then IT bods will want hot-swappable drives .... people have been mentioning this for ages (the whole 'Thing' shebang etc).

Hot swappable drives are du rigeur for many server jobs, so network admins will be very happy if, for example, Apple has got a new 1394 based hot plugging drive available. I dunno if we will see this iRaQ (they built a Qube, will Apple be cheeky enuff to build a Raq too ? :D ) server or not, but the idea of little 'pods' (for lack of a better word) which i could take 5, 10 ,20 , 40Gb of my media about with sounds great (especially for job-specific stuff eg working in a shared studio environment, or teaching classes with hands-on experience. I know of several people who would love this portability and eas of use). Mebbe this would be useful ...

You know the consultancy St Lukes in London? They dont have fixed desks with their own computers, just loads of 'public' iMacs everywhere and you just log into each one and do your work, access the network etc. I know this could sound like an idealistic way of working, and I'm not sure it would work company-wide, but in a studio, presentation or production environment, it'd be great.

I saw this in various articles and on TV about 18 months ago. So they wre running OS 9, and I believe OS X has even more robust and scalable support of multiple users. Certainly OS X seems to be one the 'enabaling' components Apple has had to get out Incidently I also believe the humble iPod is smart enough in its current form to recognise different machines it is connected to, so you can have a home and a work machine. Many creatives I know also have a mac at home and one at the office - it would be great to be able to port work back and forth easily. I can do it now .... but I have to burn it onto cd, if i'm working on video/audio thats a ballache, if its over 700Mb in size I can always use some other device ...

But, be honest. I run out the door often in the morning. I'm not best organised even if i try to be. To be able to flick, click and pick a nice hard drive away in seconds is what I would like to be able to do. ( I guess there will be some issues with security but I'm sure thats been pretty high on the 'to do' list if a product like this comes out.) Could a removable Firewire HD

Starting to sound a bit more feasible? Stick with me...
Standard 3.5"HD in similar styled casing to iPod but (obviously larger). 2.5" HD parts still too expensive I think, for the capacities for 'normal' hard drives. God only knows how they'll attach, whether you could chain them in some external way. They'd look nice though, hopefully as tough and functional as an iBook :)

Well its an idea ...

Lastly, this is my first post. Be easy on me ... I'm still reeling that the forums are back after so long :D

[jobes]

i wrote most of that last nite but just posted it.. wanted to add that thinking more about it, i'm slightly less convinced now ...

Component parts are an issue compared to a standard ATA HD would be an issue, so mebbe it would be an optional extra .... could the device be both for internal and external use? then you could mebbe drop it into a tower unit, but add it externally to a sleek new LCD iMac

So mebbe it could be an optional extra like Airport: all machines get the capabilitly to use it, internally or externally, but its optional ....

Damn, I'm getting blinded by speculation fever :D

[New]

Have anyone noticed how when you mount a disk image it looks so nice and white and iPodish/iBookish...
Another thing is how everyone always hated the HD icon in OSX... "is that supposed to be understandable to anyone? Why use anything that looks like an internal disk...?"
Well makes more sense if It can be replaced by a dockable cuddly external disk!

or maybe we're to far out right now?

[SuperKoch]

[quote]Originally posted by jobes:
<strong>i wrote most of that last nite but just posted it.. wanted to add that thinking more about it, i'm slightly less convinced now ...

Component parts are an issue compared to a standard ATA HD would be an issue, so mebbe it would be an optional extra .... could the device be both for internal and external use? then you could mebbe drop it into a tower unit, but add it externally to a sleek new LCD iMac

So mebbe it could be an optional extra like Airport: all machines get the capabilitly to use it, internally or externally, but its optional ....

Damn, I'm getting blinded by speculation fever :D </strong><hr></blockquote>

Well impressed with that post, I am! That WAS a very convenient scenario you wrote out there, I think. I'm currently doing a lot of research on mass customisation, and the idea to not only customise my digitised environment but also the hardware side is extremely appealing, I think. I'd even go further and say that a removable component like the one you describe would be the first in a row: in the end (well there is none, is there?) it could be many components with unspecified use, so that the USER can decide how exactly his perfect work environment would look and feel like. I know that almost any Windozer who is somewhat proficient with hardware can do that already, but the challenge for Apple would be to make that concept feasible on the user-interaction side of the whole thing. I'd just LOVE to see more of Ideas in that direction!

:D

[Voulge]

I was just thinking about the whole iPod-user’s backups thing.
Apple has already all the piece of the puzzle they need: network-booting of the OS, separate folder for every user’s related stuff (include. Preferences, …), network search of users, …
Imagine, you have OS-X on your internal HD (if you wish or if you have one) or in education or business (designer studios, consultants, …) on a server and booted from that OS. Actually the Users’ identification panel makes a network wide research for users. Why can’t it make a research on an iPod connected via Firewire to your Mac ? Why ? Hum, it certainly can. And that’s the big Thing : you can sale very-low “Network-Mac” without HD and sales iPod-like devices for every user (the user has a MP3-player bonus ;) ) that they can plug into the new Macs at home, school, business, … and always with there personal environment. Great isn’t it. You don’t need to charge your iPod with the entire OS, just your user-folder. Mine is actually 7GB big on my PowerBook G4, so is the iPod a little small, but wait a bit and the HD-size on it will grow.
That’s maybe a little Paradise-like vision : more Mac in the world, so more this concept is viable, HD-speed issue, :( but we have all dreams… Your digital live to go !

[Eugene]

And a dedicated slot for a removable HDD is better than a FireWire cable...how?

[JasonPP]

OK, it's expensive, but I think this is close to what everyone here is looking for, except maybe an all in one design and an OS you can own instead of rent.

<a href="http://www.dynamism.com/c815/main.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.dynamism.com/c815/main.shtml</a>

[JasonPP]

here's another:

<a href="http://www.dynamism.com/priusdeck/main.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.dynamism.com/priusdeck/main.shtml</a>

[gordy]

Well I think a removable HD is way off-target. I have no need for such a feature. I hope Apple looks at Iomega's Peerless sales (lackluster at best) while considering whether this is a worthwhile feature.
But, I won't buy another iMac anyway. Nevermind. ( <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> .02)

[Carbon3]

Sorry! I couldn't hold it in! <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />

[Junkyard Dawg]

I would MUCH rather see a 17" LCD iMac.

A removable HD will add lots of expense to an already expensive iMac, and MOST people won't use it.

It also requires that you have another Mac that can accept the HD. If it's Firewire I suppose that wouldn't be a problem. But what many people here are talking about is a world full of iMacs with HD bays ready to accept your HD. Reality is that iMacs are quite scarce, and this probably wouldn't catch on.

In contrast, I can guaran-fu[king-tee that a 17" LCD iMac would be a hit.

[Carbon3]

Um, Junkyard Dawg, look at the timestamp of this thread. You're joking, right? <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> I was. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />